Stone is a popular building material that is often used for its structural and aesthetic qualities. When selecting pieces of stone for use in building applications, a thickness of stone is selected to ensure structural integrity and prevent cracking and breaking of the stone. However, in many applications a thickness of the stone pieces selected for panels, slabs, or tiles was large enough that the stone was expensive, heavy, difficult to transport and install, and limited the overall dimensions or size of the stone pieces.
More recently, thicknesses of stone pieces has been reduced in an effort to reduce material, cost, and weight. In some instances, additional materials have been placed on a surface of the stone to increase strength and compensate for the reduction in stone thickness. For example, granite countertops sometimes include a fiberglass mesh that is applied to an underside or unexposed surface of the countertop to increase tensile strength and reduce bowing. Additionally, in applications using stone that is particularly susceptible to warping, such as Carrara Marble, more robust reinforcement has been used to reduce the undesirable warping and bowing that causes fissures or cracks to form in a surface of the stone. More robust reinforcement for stone has included a metal backer that includes an aluminum honeycomb sandwiched between two aluminum plates. Similarly, some tile applications, such as small ceramic tiles (with dimensions of approximately 12×12 inches (in.) to approximately 18×18 in.) have added a porcelain backer increase tile strength.
Known reinforcement methods have not allowed for stone panels with thickness less than 10 millimeters (mm) to have areas over 2,440 mm (or 8 feet (ft.))×1,220 mm (or 4 ft.).